With the proliferation of the Internet, a wide variety of search engines and search tools for locating information have become available. Typically, a user accesses a web page containing a search form from a search engine, inputs search terms into the form, and clicks on an icon labeled “search” or “start” for example, to transmit the search terms back to the search engine. The search engine then searches one or more databases for information containing the search terms, and accesses to the user one or more web pages containing the search results, typically represented by hyperlinks containing universal resource locators (URLs) identifying locations or addresses on the Internet where the information identified by the search engine may be found.
Disadvantageously, each time a user wishes to update a search he or she has previously performed, the user must usually return to the search engine's web page, complete the search form by inputting the same search terms as the previous search, then sift through the search results. Often, the user will have already seen most of the search results during the previous search. Accordingly, such updating is often a tedious and time-consuming process involving redundant effort, as the user has to repeatedly fill out the same search form and sift through the same results.
One recent search engine improvement involves a utility residing in a Windows system tray of a user's computer, which allows a user to manually initiate a search by pressing the Alt key then clicking on a word in an electronic document. The utility transmits the selected word over the Internet to a particular search engine, which then searches its databases for occurrences of the word. However, the search must still be manually initiated, and no apparent provision is made to eliminate redundant or old information that may have been previously retrieved. In addition, the user is required to first download and install the utility, which may not be feasible or permitted at a remote location such as a public access Internet kiosk, for example.
At the same time, electronic calendars such as desktop-based or web-based calendars are increasing in popularity. Many people, particularly business travelers, find it convenient to store a list of all of their scheduled meetings, appointments and tasks on a web-based calendar, to allow them to access this information from any computer terminal anywhere in the world which is connected to the Internet. Many such users would find it desirable to obtain up-to-date information about a person or company immediately prior to meeting with that person or company. However, meetings are often scheduled a week or more in advance, and accordingly, if a user performs a search at the time of scheduling, the search results may be out of date by the time the scheduled date of the meeting arrives. The user may intend to manually perform such a search shortly before the meeting, however, the user may be too hurried to interact with a search engine on the morning of a meeting, or may forget to do so.
Accordingly, there is a need for way to pre-schedule searches to be automatically conducted at a pre-scheduled time, such as several hours before a scheduled meeting, for example, and to conveniently provide the results of the search to a user.